Refuse compactor

ABSTRACT

A refuse compactor has an upright housing whose internal compacting chamber is accessible by a door provided in its circumferential wall. The door has a refuse-supporting platform extending from its lower edge and the platform is supported on the lower endwall of the housing when the door is closed. A compacting head fills the cross section of the chamber and is guidedly slidable in axial direction thereof. A power source and motion-transmitting arrangement are provided for advancing the compacting head towards an end wall of the housing to thereby compact refuse between the end wall and the compacting head, and for subsequently withdrawing the compacting head in direction away from the one end wall for enabling removal of the compacted refuse. Drain means drains off any liquid which may be expressed from the refuse.

[ 1 May 8, 1973 REFUSE COMPACTOR David R. Ligli, 193 Main Street, Madison, NJ. 07940 [22] Filed: May 19, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 144,892

[76] Inventor:

Related U.S. Application Data [62] Division of Ser. No. 800,220, Feb. 18, 1969, Pat. No.

[52] U.S. Cl ..100/126, 100/215, 100/229 A, 100/255 [51] Int. Cl. ..B30b 9/04 [58] Field 01 Search ..100/104, 110, 111,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Gleitsman ..312/326 X 3,285,686 1l/1966 Beaver ..312/329 3,438,321 4/1969 Gladwin ....l00/229 3,463,079 8/1969 Corbett ..100/229 X FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 277,477 9/1930 Italy ..100/255 Primary ExaminerBilly J. Wilhite Attorney-Michael S. Striker [57] ABSTRACT A refuse compactor has an upright housing whose internal compacting chamber is accessible by a door provided in its circumferential wall. The door has a refuse-supporting platform extending from its lower edge and the platform is supported on the lower endwall of the housing when the door is closed. A compacting head fills the cross section of the chamber and is guidedly slidable in axial direction thereof. A power source and motion-transmitting arrangement are provided for advancing the compacting head towards an end wall of the housing to thereby compact refuse between the end wall and the compacting head, and for subsequently withdrawing the compacting head in direction away from the one end wall for enabling removal of the compacted refuse. Drain means drains off any liquid which may be expressed from the refuse.

6 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures PATENTEDHAY 8 I973 SHEET 3 OF 3 PIC-5.3

REFUSE COMPACTOR CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS The present application is a divisional application of applicants co-pending application Ser. No. 800,220, filed Feb. l8, 1969, entitled Refuse Compactor and now U.S. Pat. No. 3,602,136.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention is concerned with refuse compactors in general, and more particularly with refuse compactors which are especially suitable for household use.

The problem of refuse disposal is becoming ever more critical, particularly in urban areas. Not only has consumption generally increased but also the use of relatively complicated discardable packaging is becoming ever more prevalent. By this it is meant that whereas previously simple bags or paper wrappings were used for many goods, today moulded or extruded plastic packages are utilized which are not readily flattened as was the old-style paper packaging. Similarly, more and more products are being supplied in cans or in so-called one-way bottles which must be discarded by the householder. All of this results in a refuse mix in the average household which requires for storage until delivery a much greater volume of space than heretofore, and which presents to refuse collecting services an ever increasing problem in disposal.

Of course, equipment has been available for some time for the commercial compacting of refuse. However, such equipment is very complicated, expensive and bulky and is not suitable for small-scale applications such as use in a private home or apartment. Yet, it is in these circumstances where the need for a means of reducing the excessive amount of space required for temporary storage of refuse is greatest and becoming ever more critical.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is, accordingly, an object of my invention to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks and to provide a refuse compactor capable of meeting the requirements which have been outlined above in general terms.

More particularly, it is an object of my invention to provide a refuse compactor suitable for use in apartments, private homes and similar applications where the unit itself must be compact for lack of storage space.

An additional object of the invention is to provide such a refuse compactor which is relatively simple in its construction and which can be reliably and without danger operated by persons of little or no mechanical skill and training.

An additional object of the invention is to provide such a refuse compactor which is relatively inexpensive to manufacture and to sell.

In pursuance of the above objects, and others which will become apparent hereafter, one feature of my invention resides in the provision of a refuse compactor having a housing which is provided with an internal chamber and which includes a circumferential wall and a pair of axially spaced endwalls bounding the chamber. A compacting head whose cross-sectional dimensions are substantially the same as those of the chamber is arranged therein for guided sliding advancement in axial direction of the chamber. A door is provided in the circumferential wall of the housing and communicates with the chamber so that refuse to be compacted may be introduced into the latter through the door. Means are associated with the compacting head and acting to effect advancement of the latter in axial direction of the chamber to thereby compact refuse contained therein by compressing it between the compacting head and one of the endwalls bounding the chamber. The lower edge region of the door supports a laterally projecting pladorm on which refuse to be compacted is deposited, and which overlies and is supported by the lower endwall of the housing when the door is closed.

The power supply for the advancement of the compacting head may advantageously utilize a hydraulic piston or a mechanical screw which may be actuated manually or may be motor operated.

A highly advantageous feature of my invention resides in the fact that the refuse, which is comprised of many bulky items such as glass bottles, cans, paper cartons, paper of all sorts, food and waste and is thus full of voids and very bulky, may be placed into a bagshaped receptacle, such as a waterproof paper bag or plastic bag, and thereupon introduced into the compacting chamber of my compactor wherein its volume is reduced to approximately one tenth of the original bulk. In this highly compacted state the refuse is clearly much more easy to handle and requires obviously must less storage space, both in the individual household while awaiting pick-up by the refuse collecting service and on the refuse collecting trucks and subsequently at the dumping station.

The novel features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in particular in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its construction and its method of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a partially diagrammatic side elevation, with parts broken away and with the compartment door shown open, of a refuse compactor according to one embodiment of my invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic side elevation of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 showing size relationships as they may be incorporated in an actual household-type refuse compactor according to my invention; and

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a refuse compactor according to another embodiment of my invention, with certain details omitted because they have been shown in FIG. 1 and are identical.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Discussing now the drawing in detail, and firstly FIG. 1 thereof, it will be seen that reference numeral 1 identifies a housing which here is shown as an upright housing of generally cylindrical configuration. I wish it to be understood, however, that the cross-sectional configuration of the housing need not necessarily be round, but could be oval, square or generally polygonal. I

The housing is provided with an interior compacting compartment 2 bounded by the circumferential wall of the housing as well as the lower end wall 4 and the upper end wall 16 thereof. A door 3, constituting a part-circular portion of the circumferential wall bounding the compartment 2, provides access to the latter and is in this embodiment hinged for pivoting movement about a pivoting axis extending in parallelism with the upright axis of the housing 1. The lower end wall 4 which must absorb the pressure of the compacting head, as will still be discussed, is constructed as an anvil and reinforced at its underside, being welded to the circumferential wall of the housing 1.

Suitable latches 5 of well known construction are used for securely holding the door 3 closed when desired, that is when the device is in operation.

Arranged in the compartment 2 is a compacting head 6 which is freely suspended in the compartment 2 and movable slidably and guidedly from the upper end of the compartment 2 downwards towards the end wall 4 thereof. Thus, if refuse is placed into a bag or similar container and then into the compartment 2 with the door 3 closed, and when the compacting head 6 is moved downwardly towards the end wall 4, the refuse will be compacted between the end wall 4 and the compacting head 6 The compacting head comprises a plate or similar shaped member extending normal to the longitudinal axis of the compartment 2 and having cross-sectional dimensions substantially complementary to the interior cross-sectional dimensions of the chamber 2. in other words, the heat 6 fits rather closely with approximately one-eighth inch of play in the compartment 2. An annular member or wall 7 is connected by welding or the like to the head 6 and extends upwardly therefrom. I choose to call this wall 7 an upwardly extending skirt, and its diameter should be advantageously the same as that of the heat 6, but may be somewhat smaller. The upper free edge of the upwardly extending skirt 7 in turn is provided with an annular guide 8 having a free fit with the interior wall bounding the compartment 2. In this manner, the compacting head 6 is prevented from tipping or tilting, which may occur when it engages refuse which is either unevenly loaded so as to be higher on one side and lower on the other side of the compartment 2, or where the load of refuse consists of different materials at different sides with the result that at one side the material is more readily compactible than at the other side with the head 6 tending to tilt towards this one side. Evidently, this would :cause tipping or tilting or slanting of the head 6 and might result in jamming thereof. Because this is undesired and not conducive to smooth and continuous operation of the device, the skirt 7 and the guide 8 are provided to prevent this. The skirt should, incidentally, advantageously have a height corresponding to approximately 25 percent of the diameter of the housing 1 in the illustrated embodiment.

A hydraulic cylinder of the double-acting type is mounted on the upper end wall 16 of the housing 1 via a cylinder mounting base 17. This base is securely fastened to the cylinder 15 in usual manner and the piston and piston rod 14 of the cylinder are displaceable hydraulically under the influence of hydraulic fluid pressure supplied by a manually or motor operated pump 113. In the illustrated embodiment it is assumed that the pump 18 is motor-operated and comprises an electric motor energized by a conventional or volt AC. power source.

However, a mechanical screw jack can be substituted for the hydraulic cylinder if so desired.

In the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 1 a universal clevis drive, well known to those skilled in the art, is located at the center of the compacting head 6 and secured thereto. It is not believed necessary to discuss the clevis drive in detail and it is simply pointed out that it consists of mounting brackets 10, shaft trunion 11, the pin 12 and the clevis 13. This assembly will hinge to any angle and could, if desired, be replaced with a balland-socket joint. The piston rod 14 of the cylinder screws into the clevis so that power is transmitted and any uneven motion is accommodated by the clevis drive.

The direction of fluid flow is controlled by the control valve 19 which is turned in one direction for the compression stroke of the cylinder piston and in the op posite direction for the return stroke. The center position may, in usual manner, correspond to neutral with the piston halted. A pressure limiting device 20 of known construction is interposed in the pressure side of the line and may be in form of a calibrated relief valve which makes it possible to select a maximum allowable pressure on the compacting head. A calibrated pressure gauge 21 is interposed in the fluid line 15a connecting the pump 18 with the piston and cylinder arrangement l4, l5 and serves to show the pressure on a suitable scale, either in pounds total pressure, psi, or simply on an arbitrary A, B, C scale. To limit the speed of travel of the compacting head 6 an orifice of selected diameter may be provided to restrict the fluid flow to the hydraulic cylinder so as to assure that the piston and thereby the compacting head 6 will travel no faster than is considered safe.

On the housing 1 I provide a safety switch or disabling switch 29 which is connected via a suitable connection to the safety valve 30, also interposed in the fluid pressure line from the pump, which safety valve is actuated electrically, that is it may be a solenoid valve. The purpose of this arrangement is to assure that the safety switch 29 opens when the door 3 is opened. This, in turn, results in actuation of the valve 30 which closes, shutting off the supply of hydraulic pressure fluid to the cylinder and piston arrangement 14, 15 and terminating further movement of the compacting head 6 in any direction. This is a safety measure to prevent accidents.

It will be appreciated that whereas in FIG. 1 l have shown the various auxiliary components such as the pump, the pressure limiting device, the valve 30 and the like separated from the actual housing l, l have done this only for convenience of illustration and all of these components may advantageously be mounted directly on the housing 1 itself, preferably on the upper end wall 16 thereof. This results in an extremely compact self-contained unit which requires nothing more than connection with a source of electric current for its operation.

The size arrangements illustrated in FIG. 2 are selfexplanatory, it being evident that the height of the compacting head 6 including the upwardly extending skirt 7 thereof may be eight and one-half inches, that the stroke of the head 6 may be 24 inches as may also be the height of the door 3, and that the spacing of the lower endwall 4 from the ground may be 3 7% inches. Of course, this is only illustrative of one advantageously dimensioned embodiment and not to be considered limiting in any sense.

Coming, finally, to the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, it will be seen that it corresponds largely to that of FIG. 1. The auxiliary components such as the power source and the like have been omitted because they are the same as in the embodiment of FIG. 1. The embodiment of FIG. 3 differs from that of FIG. 1 in that at the bottom of the door 3 there is loosely fastened a shelf or platform 24 extending laterally from the door 3 resting, when the latter is closed, on the bottom wall 4 on which it slides. The platform 24 is free to move into flat surface-to-surface contact with the bottom wall 4 when the door is closed and in response to pressure exerted by the compacting head 6.

The platform 24 serves to support a waterproof bag of paper, plastic or the like, which advantageously is stiff enough to stand in opened condition by itself and to rest on the platform 24. A loading funnel or hopper 22 connected by-a hinge 23 to the circumferential wall of the housing 1 and may be swung upwardly out of the way to be held in position by a latch 26 of known construction, or down into the position illustrated in FIG. 3 where it registers with the open top of the bag 25 so that refuse may be readily introduced into the latter through the funnel 22. Bag 25 may be folded over at the top, or have its top tied by a wire or the like. Then the door 3is closed so that the bag is located in the chamber 2 and the head 6 is now activated.

In this embodiment, as well as in the preceding one, a trough 27 may be provided in or below the bottom wall 4 to collect any fluid expressed from the refuse and escaping from the bag 25. A drain hose 28 may be provided to evacuate such fluid.

Legs la may be provided in any embodiment on the housing I, to facilitate mounting of the same in any desired manner.

It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together, may also find a useful application in other types of constructions differing from the types described above.

While the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in a refuse compactor, it is not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.

Without further analysis the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of the present invention that others can by applying current knowledge readily adapt it for various applications without omitting features that, from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this invention and, therefore, such adaptations should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalence of the following claims.

What is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent is set forth in the appended 1. In a refuse compactor having an upright housing provided with a circumferential wall, a top endwall and a bottom endwall having an upper surface, and compacting means displaceable in said housing in direction from said top endwall towards said bottom endwall, in combination, a door provided in said circumferential wall and hinged for swinging movement about an upright axis between an open and a closed position; and a laterally projecting platform extending from a lower edge region of said door and having a general plane paralleling and upwardly proximal to the plane of said upper surface so that said platform overlies said bottom endwall interiorly of said housing in surface-to-surface proximity with said upper surface of said bottom endwall when said door is in said closed position and in supported surface-to-surface contact with said upper surface when said compacting means exerts compacting pressure, said platform being adapted for carrying receptacles containing refuse which is to be compacted.

2. In a refuse compactor as defined in claim I wherein said housing is of substantially circular crosssection and said door is curved in accordance with a portion of arc.

3. In a refuse compactor as defined in claim 2, wherein said platform has an outline at least substantially corresponding to the cross-sectional configuration of said housing.

4. In a refuse compactor as defined in claim 1; and further comprising outlet means for receiving liquid expressed from the refuse being compacted; and drain means in the region of the level of said bottom endwall and communicating with said outlet means for draining off the expressed liquid.

S. In a refuse compactor as defined in claim 4, wherein said outlet means comprises a collecting channel positioned to receive the expressed liquid and being provided with at least one outlet opening.

6. In a refuse compactor as defined in claim 4, wherein said drain means comprises at least one drain conduit extending from said region of said bottom endwall downwardly and having a discharge opening downwardly spaced from said bottom endwall. 

1. In a refuse compactor having an upright housing provided with a circumferential wall, a top endwall and a bottom endwall having an upper surface, and compacting means displaceable in said housing in direction from said top endwall towards said bottom endwall, in combination, a door provided in said circumferential wall and hinged for swinging movement about an upright axis between an open and a closed position; and a laterally projecting platform extending from a lower edge region of said door and having a general plane paralleling and upwardly proximal to the plane of said upper surface so that said platform overlies said bottom endwall interiorly of said housing in surface-to-surface proximity with said upper surface of said bottom endwall when said door is in said closed position and in supported surface-tosurface contact with said upper surface when said compacting means exerts compacting pressure, said platform being adapted for carrying receptacles containing refuse which is to be compacted.
 2. In a refuse compactor as defined in claim 1 wherein said housing is of substantially circular cross-section and said door is curved in accordance with a portion of arc.
 3. In a refuse compactor as defined in claim 2, wherein said platform has an outline at least substantially corresponding to the cross-sectional configuration of said housing.
 4. In a refuse compactor as defined in claim 1; and further comprising outlet means for receiving liquid expressed from the refuse being compacted; and drain means in the region of the level of said bottom endwall and communicating with said outlet means for draining off the expressed liquid.
 5. In a refuse compactor as defined in claim 4, wherein said outlet means comprises a collecting channel positioned to receive the expressed liquid and being provided with at least one outlet opening.
 6. In a refuse compactor as defined in claim 4, wherein said drain means comprises at least one drain conduit extending from said region of said bottom endwall downwardly and having a discharge opening downwardly spAced from said bottom endwall. 